


dismantle the sun

by flibbertygigget



Series: The Other 51 [48]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men (Original Timeline Movies), X-Men The Last Stand
Genre: Angst, Death, Inspired by Poetry, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 01:44:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7738618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In one moment the man that Erik had built his life around had turned to dust.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dismantle the sun

**Author's Note:**

> Quotes are from W.H. Auden's poem [ "Funeral Blues"](https://allpoetry.com/Funeral-Blues).

> He was my North, my South, my East and West,  
>  My working week and my Sunday rest,  
>  My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;  
>  I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The world is screaming.

Erik imagines, for a moment, that this is what it must have been like for Charles. So much pain, so much suffering, and all for nothing. But the difference now is that there is no benevolent professor to sooth all troubled minds, only Erik, and Erik is screaming along with it.

Why? G-d why? The question reverberates through him like the low, long tone of a tuning fork, making his jaw clench and his eyes smart. Why? Charles, wrong though he may have been, had always sought what he thought to be the best path. Even Erik could admit that he had done more to help and protect mutant-kind than the Brotherhood had ever been able to. He had been good and true and calm and-

And he was gone. In one moment the man that Erik had built his life around had turned to dust. Erik can still see him, infuriatingly placid, determined not to fight back with his full strength even as his own student had turned her powers against him. Charles had been too good, too innocent for the world they lived in, and the thought makes Erik's chest hurt. The one man who honestly thought that peace was an option is dead.

No more peace. No more school. No more naive dreams of harmony and coexistence. Charles' dream has died with him, of that Erik is certain. Anyone who keeps trying to create that perfect world will soon find that only one man could ever have the patience and the purity to bend all the pettiness and hatred in the world to his will.

Magneto is all that is left. Magneto, who twists and warps the beautiful words that Charles spoke, who betrays and hurts and destroys without counting the cost. Magneto, who is the best hope for mutants everywhere. He cannot bring peace, only the sword, wiping out those who threaten them without regret.

So be it. With Charles dead, what else is there to preserve? Only a foolish dream, no longer attached to the man who made happiness seem within Erik's grasp. Charles was light and goodness, and the possibility of his vision of their future winning out over Erik's was... well, it was hope. But without him, though the world keeps turning as though it is not the end, nothing can ever be good again. Redemption and salvation have both proven themselves shames. Vengeance is all that can remain after Charles.

> The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,  
>  Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,  
>  Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;  
>  For nothing now can ever come to any good.


End file.
